So, my Brother-in-law, Treasurdiggrny, has been trying to get me to go out with him for a while now....I went on my first expedition a couple of weeks ago, but all I found was a lot of trash (we really need to recycle LOL), and a 1985 penny.

Sunday was my 2nd time out. My B.I.L. met me at my house at 7AM, and after a cup of coffee we were off. Now, I am fisherman, so I am used to getting up early....but I am not sure why we have to metal detect so early...are the coins closer to the surface in the morning? LOL...

After driving around, with no particular destination in mind, we came to a town with several farms on the outskirts. And thanks to the fact that my B.I.L. will talk to anyone (he's much friendlier than I am) we got permission to work this guys field.

We had been out just a few minutes when I got a signal. After several minutes of digging I had a hole between my legs the size of a 10 gallon pail, but could not find what I was looking for.  Treasurdiggrny came over and asked if I needed a hand, so the 2 of  us dug and sorted through the soil till he pointed out something on the ground....a glimmer of gold. He handed it to me, and I started to clean it off...turned out it was a button...after cleaning it up a bit we could see it was a one piece, plain front, gilded button with the mark, Scovills Extra Rich on the back. After doing a little research I found out that it was produced between 1827 and 1840. While I was pleased to find the button, I would have been far more revved if I had known the age of it while we were still out there.

We each made a pass down the field, and then I sort of meandered around, and back up towards where we started. A little while later Treasurdiggrny made his way over, and I asked him if he found anything. He told me he did, and showed me a large copper coin....it was too dirty to tell what it was, but it was pretty exciting.  We worked our way down the field some more then he called me over. He had a very clean tone from something, and wanted me to go over it with the machine I was using to hear the tone, and note the readings...beep...beep...a solid signal in the mid 70s....after I swiped over it a few times he started to dig. He pried a divot out of the ground, and passed his machine over the clump....beep...beep...he broke off a piece and waved it by his coil....nothing...he waved another piece in front of the coil...nothing...on the third piece...beep...beep...he started to break up the piece in his hand, and there it was, another large copper. Man, it was like he had planned a clinic for me....solid tone....target came out of the ground in the first shovel full, and bingo! a 200 year old coin...you couldn't have scripted it any better.

So off I went determined to find something interesting...we now knew for sure that this field had been being used by people for at least 200 years, and there had to be more out there....I made my way down the field towards a break in the tree line where a vehicle could pull in to the field. After digging up a couple solid tones that turned out to be garbage, I got a clean signal in the low 80s....I didn't get excited because the last clean signal in the low 80's had been an odd chunk of scrap metal. I started digging in the mud, this part of the field was pretty wet.  I had been at it for while when the detector beeped over the pile of dirt instead of the hole.....I spent a few minutes on my knees in the mud filtering through the pile bit by bit, when finally I passed a hand full of goop in front of the coil...beep...beep....I broke up the ball of mud in my hand until I was left with a coin. At first I could not make out any details, but after wiping off a layer or 8 of caked on dirt and mud, I was able to make out the eagle of a Liberty Standing Quarter....it was exciting. The coin was badly tarnished and the date is rubbed off, but the eagle is centered so it was minted after 1917, and the date being gone means it was pressed before they recessed the dates in 1925.....so, there it is...my first "find"....an 80 or 90 year old coin.

I don't know that I am "hooked", but I am certainly looking forward to my next time out....you really never know what lies beneath.....


Earthmover

Welcome to the site and nice post brother It's like I was there glad you're looking forward to hitting it again I can't wait either. Later